


I could go and do it

by steadybeholder



Series: Somebody told me [4]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: (sort of), Alternate Universe - Bookstore, Alternate Universe - High School, Bookstore Owner Castiel, M/M, Mechanic Dean, he's not really the owner though
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 15:21:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11360157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/steadybeholder/pseuds/steadybeholder
Summary: Sure, Cas could always cross the street and talk to Dean, but they had been half smiling and nodding at each other from the distance for so long that it felt wrong to break the streak of unspoken hello's. What difference can a cat do?Here's the fourth part of a fic in which:Dean (and his bff, Charlie) try to get Sam and Jess together.Sam and Jess try to get Dean and Cas togetherAnd Gabriel tries to get- well, tries to get back with Sam.





	I could go and do it

**Author's Note:**

> *here she comes, three years late with a chapter half the length of the other parts*  
> Do I have an excuse? No  
> Did I actually take three years to write this? I wish  
> Is reading this worth it? I can't give you an honest answer to that but please do read it.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cas' inner monologue is done with Cas refusing to acknowledge he has a thing for Dean and his brother, Gabriel, keeps pretending he's cool with rejection.

“Get your lazy ass out of bed, Castiel. Half an hour ‘til your shift” A voice that a few seconds later I recognize as my uncle’s yells outside my bedroom

“Thts nn true” I growl against my pillow

“Look at the time, you airhead!”

I turn my head to the right and see the hands of the clock telling me it is, in fact, seven thirty.

“Shoot!” I get out of bed, tripping with the comforter that had been dropped to the floor some time during the night and run to the bathroom. What the hell was my uncle thinking when he bought a store that’s so far from our place? Of course, he wasn’t thinking about that because he’s not the one who works there.

“You too, Gabriel” I hear him shout from downstairs “Just because you’re in a break from college doesn’t mean you get a break here”

“Ugh, I had forgotten how much of an asshole was that- well, that asshole” Gabe leans on my doorframe as I try to make my bed in the most decent way I can before grabbing whatever clothes look presentable for work. “It must be hell to be just the two of you with me at school, isn’t it?”

“I guess” I reply, still struggling with that corner of my mattress that insists on staying naked “We ignore each other so much it’s rather pleasant sometimes”

Gabe laughs and walks to his bedroom. It actually doesn’t bother me that much to be just Uncle Met and I, we do ignore each other as much as we possibly can but having Gabriel here makes everything better. Or at least, less bad.

I run downstairs and as usual, there’s no breakfast to eat. Uncle Met is attached to the sofa in front of the TV watching X-Files reruns. If the judge hadn’t practically forced him to, he wouldn’t have let us live with him. When our parents died we were almost sent to two different corners of the country. That’s when we were introduced to Metatron (don’t ask about the name, he doesn’t like it). He’s our dad’s only relative and since we would be given a monthly amount of money until we both turned eighteen, he agreed to take care of us. We never saw that money. He used it to buy a store downtown with the purpose of turning it into a bar without even making sure it was allowed to have a bar at that area. Of course it wasn’t. What an idiot.

“ _Your money paid for that place_ ” he had said “ _you see what you do with that rat hole_ ”

I suggested making it a book store and that’s what we did. Uncle Met didn’t hate the idea, for a guy who spends most of his time drinking and watching tv, he enjoys books quite a lot.

Two months into the business, our uncle saw the profit and stepped in. He said he was the one who bought the place and it was still his name written on the paper. The place was his, therefore, so was the business. That’s how we ended up working for uncle Douche-atron.

“I call the car!” Gabe shouted just when I was about to grab the keys. He’s the one who visits the providers and today we were getting a new set of books so I couldn’t object.

“At least give me a ride!”

“No can do, little brother” he says, motioning his arms to the pair of boxers he was wearing, the only thing he was wearing.

“Fifteen minutes, Castiel” Uncle Met says.

I don’t have time to argue with them so I take my bike.

The store is two blocks away from the outdoors mall downtown, which is also the only place nearby with a bike rack so I park it there and just when I was about to start running to open the place, I remember one very important thing: There’s no one waiting for me to open.

Uncle Met rushes me to leave the house on time but I have no urge to get to that place, since I’m the only one who works there and although we sell a fair amount of books every week, there has never been a time when somebody enters the store right at the time we open.

_Your intelligence surprises me, Castiel._

So, instead of running a mini marathon to get to a work with no boss to tell me off, I take my time, nodding at strangers, occasionally smiling at familiar faces until I’m only a few buildings away and my eyes go instinctively to the garage across the street.

_Why did I let all this time go by?_

Dean and I could’ve been good friends if it wasn’t for Gabriel and Sam’s break up.

But Dean and I wouldn’t have met if it wasn’t for Gabriel and Sam getting together.

_Cas, you’re doing it again._

I enter the store while Dean was looking somewhere else and begin my usual routine, change the sign from “Sorry, we’re closed” to “Open”; clean up a bit around the shelves and change the books on the display window.

If only I told you about Dean Winchester.

I hate to talk about physical attraction or “love at first sight”, I honestly don’t believe in those things. I hadn’t even considered the idea of being interested in guys before, and I’m not saying I have that kind of interest in him either. I actually had never been interested in anyone at all. High school was a bit of a strange experience with all that sex ed and kids desperately looking to get laid and me just not really caring much for all that. But Dean is the kind of person you simply like to watch, analyze; study his behavior and every move, he’s just fascinating. Ok, I realize I sound like some creep watching from a bush or a mad scientist talking about an experiment. Sorry. If you knew Dean you’d understand what I’m talking about. I haven’t been stalking him, I swear. I just happen to work right across the street from him and it’s hard not to stare when I’m looking for a way to pass the time on those lazy hours with no clients.

When I first saw him, on my first day working here, he was talking to a man I later knew was his uncle. _‘He seems nice’_ , I remember thinking. _The kind of person who takes his time letting people in but it sure must be worth it_. I’m no expert judging others, in fact, I suck at getting a correct first impression of people (just as much as giving one) but my thoughts had thoughts of their own and decided to convince me from day one that I needed to know him.

Then the whole “my brother is dating your brother” thing happened and I regretted not taking my time to cross the street and introduce myself because with Gabriel and Sam just kind of _there_ , everything got awkward and as I stated before, I wasn’t capable of giving him a good first impression. Although to be fair, he could’ve done better at his.

After it was all over (and by _all,_ I mean Sam and Gabe’s relationship, along with every communication between the Novaks and the Winchesters), Dean tried to keep things civilized between us, maybe for Sam’s sake, maybe to make up for all the times his hostile nature got me to think I had done something to offend him. But with the time we stopped until we got to where we are now, nodding and half-smiling at each other as we walk on the opposite sidewalk.

“Cry no more, little brother for I have arrived!” Gabe storms in a couple hours later with a box that reads the name of some book publisher I don’t care enough to read, shouting and acting all important like only he knows how to. He never checks if there are clients in the shop before doing this.

“Hooray, I am saved” I mutter as I take the box and inspect it's contents to make sure the list the publisher sent us matches the books we got “Go get the rest of the boxes, would you?”

“Now aren’t you in a good mood, Cassie?” he laughs as he walks through the door, heading to the car.

“Please, don’t call me-” I don’t bother finishing my sentence because he can’t hear me from outside the shop. Is everyone’s older brother like this? No, I bet Dean isn’t.

_Cas._

I had spent the past few hours in and out of reality, hoping I hadn’t been accidentally rude to anyone. Especially to that one lady who came in looking for a Bible and yelled at me because all religious books were in the same section. Everybody else was nice but I barely noticed; I was too busy constantly looking to my right, checking if Dean was looking this way.

_Is this a crush? God, I hope not._

_Yeah right, you assbutt. You’re head over heels for Dean Winchester._

“Cassie, you there?” Gabe drops another box of books right in front of me and then another one “That was the last one. Have fun, bye!”

“Wait, aren’t you helping me with these?”

And he was gone.

I sigh and retrieve myself to counting books and reading lists. Working at a book store isn’t as fun or interesting as movies make you believe ( _Hugh Grant and Meg Ryan, I’m looking at you_ ).

An uneventful morning leading to an uneventful afternoon until Gabriel shows up, telling me he wanted to go have lunch with me. I can’t complain, he knows he can buy my affection with a burger. He takes one of the empty boxes with him, leaves it inside the car and we walk to the food court of the mall.

“So” he says but doesn’t keep going.

“So?” I urge him to continue

“Come on, Cas! We’ve barely had time to catch up on each other’s lives. Tell me what’s up?”

“I- um, not much actually. Just work.” I wish I was better at small talk, but years ago I realized I can’t keep a conversation going to save my life.

“Bo-ring!” he whines as we walk, “No pranks on Douche-atron? No college applications? No-” and he pauses to squint at me, “ _special someone?”_

“No. No. And, no” I try not to go too deep into the subject. None of them.

“At least tell me you’ve missed me!” he begs, probably getting a little frustrated and I laugh.

“I have” I say “I’m glad you’re here” It hadn’t been that long since Gabe’s last visit. A little more than three weeks. He’s attending business school at Lawrence University which isn’t that far from here so it wasn’t necessary for him to move out but at this point you can probably tell why he did.

Gabriel makes a weird noise that I believe he uses to express affection before pulling me down, putting his arm around my neck and patting my head like crazy. Now, it wouldn’t be such an uncomfortable scene if only Gabe wasn’t considerably shorter than me.

We had a hamburger each and Gabe was now gulping down an abnormally large desert of ice cream and cake.

“So, to sum things up” he speaks in between mouthfuls “you and uncle Met are fine; you haven’t applied for any sort of college and you haven’t met anyone”

“It’s been a month, how much did you exactly expect to happen in that period of time?”

“The craziest movies happen in a day!”

“Yeah, ok” I say and hope he drops it. He’s constantly trying to get me to talk about my life just so we don’t talk about his. But we _have_ to talk about his life. And I am nothing but scared to do so. “Gabe?”

“Mhmm?” He answers with cake in his mouth.

“I think it’s best if you stop coming, you know. At least for a while”

“Wait, what?”

_Oh, God. What have I done?_

“Please, let me explain” I try to say but I spoke too soon and now I hurt his feelings.

“You said you missed me” _here we go_ “And I know I don’t say it but I miss you too”

“No, you don’t”

“What?”

“Gabe, you’re my brother and I love you. But you have to get out of here, for good” he had put his plate aside and now was just staring at me with a look of betrayal in his eyes. He was hurt and it was killing me to be the one doing this to him. But he needed to hear this. “Stop coming back to see if there’s something left for you here. There isn’t” he knew what I was talking about. Feigning ignorance would only hurt him worse on the long run.

We walked in silence back to the shop where Gabriel took the car and left to God knows where.

* * *

 

I’m standing with my back pressed against the counter when something outside the shop catches my attention, a white-greyish cat had sat in front of the glass looking at me right through it.

“Hello” I say with a smile, though I know the cat can’t hear me from the other side of the glass “Looking for something?” then a car alarm goes off and the cat runs away. I look up and my eyes instinctively find a pair of green ones as I smile by reflex before realizing who I was even looking at. I catch Dean’s smile just when he was turning his look away, I believe it’s all these unspoken hello’s what make it so hard to use actual words.

The sound of my phone buzzing against the glass of the countertop gets my attention and part of me feels weird looking at the name on the screen.

“Hello?”

“Unicorn” I can hear a smile in her voice I wish were contagious. I don’t have a nickname for her.

“Hi, Meg” I say “what time is it? aren’t you in class?”

“Technically speaking, I am. But if you really want to know, I’m in the bathroom”

“That- that wasn’t my question”

I hear her absentminded laugh and I wonder if I should be finding fun in this exchange as well.

“I got out of that brain killing class because Rufus was boring the hell out of me. Don’t worry Cas, I’ll go back eventually”

“And what’s the call for?”

“To know how you’ve been. Distract myself from class. To my personal and selfish amusement. Pick a card, it’s all the same”

“I think it’s best if you return to your classroom, Meg. I wouldn’t like you to get in trouble”

“I guess you don’t like me that much at all, huh?”

“No- that’s not what I-“

“I'm not serious! I like getting in trouble, Cas. It’s what I do! But fine, I’ll let you Jiminy Cricket me this time”

I think I know what she’s talking about but I’m not entirely sure so I don’t say anything

“That means I’ll let you act as my conscience” She clarifies, matter-of-factly.

“That means you’ll go to class?”

“Yes, Cas. That means I’ll go to class. This was good, though. A nice distraction. Talk later, unicorn”

And she ended the call.

Maybe Meg is too used to being the only one talking or I am used to being the one listening but honestly, talking to Meg isn’t hard. Just a come and go of sentences, interaction without any weight to consider. Except maybe for that one time we both were slightly intoxicated at some guy’s party and we kissed for a considerable amount of times. I think that’s why Meg feels like we should talk from time to time; I’ve made it clear I’m not the heart of any party or the person everyone wants to be around. She, however, seems to enjoy my presence more than the average human.

* * *

 

When I get home there’s no one in sight. I hear shuffling upstairs and I guess it’s Gabe in his room that’s been the same mess ever since I can remember. At this time Uncle Met is usually stuck to the desktop installed in the spare room downstairs writing crappy novels that will never get published, but he’s not there now. All I can think of is that he’s probably feasting on junk food and booze with my paycheck, I take his spot and turn it on.

I wasn’t lying when I told Gabriel I hadn’t applied to any colleges, but I’ve been opening and closing tabs with Google searches and college pages because I’m too scared to even read the information properly. Gabe worked his butt off all through high school so he could go to college on his own terms, had it been for Uncle Met, none of us would ever leave. I don’t think he likes the idea of having to work for his own stuff. But I lived off Gabe’s money until I started working at the bookshop and although I make way less than I should, it’s still enough to live a very average, college-less life under my Uncle’s roof. Sad, I know.

Fear gets the best of me and I log onto YouTube instead, distracting myself from my life with the most basic form of on line entertainment: cat videos. Until I hear Gabe coming down the staircase. He’s carrying a box and heading to the front door.

“Is that what I think it is?” I ask, I think he didn’t know I was home because there’s a second of hesitation in his face, he wasn’t ready to give any kind of explanation.

“It’s not a cat if that’s what you’re asking” he replies with a smirk not as confident as he probably thinks.

“Sam’s remaining belongings that you’ve kept hostages for the past six months. That’s what I’m thinking”

“Oh. Yeah. I believe you’re right”

Without anything else to add, he just turns away from me and leaves, and now I have to stay up until he gets back because I know it’s going to be bad.

* * *

 

I don’t know what time it is but Uncle Met is already home and passed out on the couch when I hear the car pulling over on our sidewalk. I step outside because I don’t want to wake the beast and sit on the steps leading to the door, Gabriel doesn’t have the box anymore, that’s good, but his face says it all.

“Where you with Sam all this time?”

“Yeah, sure, Cassie. We were making out in the car and then went to see a movie and it was great and wonderful. The wedding’s tomorrow” Despite the sarcasm, there’s no room left for his snarky tone anymore. His face is dry but his voice sounds like he was crying. He walks up to the door and sits next to me. “There really is nothing left for me here, is it?”

I just shake my head.

“I know it’s been difficult, Gabriel, I saw how good it was for you to be with him” I try to put my hand on his shoulder but this is really the first time I do this brotherly talk thing so I end up patting him awkwardly instead. “But it’s not good for anyone anymore”

“I guess you’re right”

“Sorry for telling you to stop visiting, I didn’t-”

“Shut up” he smiles for the first time and right now I can’t tell if it’s real or not “it’s not like I’m going to listen to what my little brother says. Besides, you’re crazy if you think I’m gonna leave you by yourself with Uncle Douche-atron”

“I wasn’t expecting you to”

**Author's Note:**

> The good news? I'm halfway through Sam's, Jess', and Dean's second chapters.  
> The bad news? I can't give you a date for an update.  
> The ok news? I'm not giving up on this, I promise.  
> Tell me what you think, what can be improved and what I can do without, it's been a while since I wrote this so I need to get back on these character's minds. Any doubts, questions, that can be solved without spoiling anything will be happily solved.  
> See you in Jess' part!


End file.
